On September 28, 2007 the British University and College Teachers Union's (UCU) announced that based on legal advice, the union had determined that an academic boycott of Israel "would be unlawful and cannot be implemented" and thus it will not act on its May 30, 2007 resolution. According to a UCU statement:

"Legal advice states: 'It would be beyond the union's powers and unlawful for the union, directly or indirectly, to call for, or to implement, a boycott by the union and its members of any kind of Israeli universities and other academic institutions; and that the use of union funds directly or indirectly to further such a boycott would also be unlawful.' The advice also says that 'to ensure that the union acts lawfully, meetings should not be used to ascertain the level of support for such a boycott."

Many organizations in the UK and around the world worked together to challenge the UCU boycott. ADL initiated an international ad and letter writing campaign. Over 25,000 signed our letters to the UCU and many more helped spread the "Stop the Boycott" message.